2/27/2011

Thoughts On A Sunday

It was another day of dealing with snow, with another 3 inches having fallen overnight here at The Manse. I was out late this morning clearing it off from the driveway, parking areas and decks. Normally I wouldn't be in such a hurry to get it all done but both Deb and I had to get to work today and there's a follow-on storm that will be dropping sleet and a lot of rain sometime Monday. That meant making sure as much snow was cleared away and off of everything we didn't want weighed down with wet soggy snow.

Things might have gone quicker, but as I mentioned yesterday BeezleBub is spending a few days down at the WP In-Laws with Twirl Girl. That meant I was doing this all by myself. At least there wasn't a lot of snow to deal with...except on the decks.

What makes it worse is that just before I finished (just after dark), the Official Weekend Pundit Snowblower broke down. I had to finish the last of the clean up with a shovel. Not that having a running snowblower is going to help all that much because we also ran out of room to put snow, at least any of the snow in front of The Manse's garage.

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Watching coverage of the nationwide union protests supporting the state workers in Wisconsin only proved to me the unions really don't get it. They talk about how preserving the unions will somehow preserve the middle class, totally ignoring the irony that they are the ones placing an increasingly heavy burden on the middle class by demanding less affordable pay, benefits, and pensions, all of which are paid for by that same middle class they say they want to 'protect'. The taxpayers are already struggling to make ends meet, most cutting back on their own expenditures in order to be able to keep paying their mortgages, bills, and to meet other day-to-day needs. Many haven't seen a pay raise in years, and some have seen their pay cut in exchange for keeping their jobs.

It's starting to sound more like their attitude is less “I'm doing this for you!” and more like “I got mine, buddy, so screw you!”

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Over the years I've heard more than one friend or acquaintance lament the construction of modern cars, saying “They don't make then like they used to,” usually following up with the claim that they were made like tanks. All I can say is, thanks goodness they don't.

Below is an IIHS video of a crash test between a 1959 Chevy Bel Air and a 2009 Chevy Malibu.

Of the two, which car would you rather be in during a crash like that? In another video posting of the same crash test, the IIHS reported the occupant of the Malibu would have suffered a knee injury. The occupant of the Bel Air would have died on impact.

A former co-worker always talked of his dislike for the more modern powertrains, saying he preferred to work on them himself. Never mind the old ones required a lot of routine maintenance, with far more frequent oil changes and tune ups, and that they didn't last nearly as long as the modern ones. (It wasn't uncommon for vehicles to be ready for the scrap heap at 100,000 miles. Nowadays 100,000 miles is considered barely broken in and some car manufacturers warranty their power trains for 100,000 miles!) This is something BeezleBub has learned the hard way, seeing as his 1975 Jeep CJ5 requires a lot of work to keep running.

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In light of the recent disclosure of a measles-infected passenger possibly infecting hundreds of her fellow passengers at 4 US airports, the anti-vaccine hysteria of the past decade shows one of the major perils of not having children vaccinated: old diseases are making a comeback and are once again killing.

There are two factors playing a role in this matter: pseudoscience and perceived risk.

Much of what many anti-vaccine parents know is true about the link between vaccines and autism (and a host of other ills) just isn't so. While there appeared to be correlation between the administration of vaccines and the onset of ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorders), one must remember that correlation does not imply causality. Children who were not vaccinated showed no difference in the numbers who developed ASD versus children who were. None. But pseudoscience claims there is, despite there being clinical proof showing just the opposite.

Anti-vaccine parents see the risk of vaccine-caused ASD as being astronomically higher than the risk of their unvaccinated child being affected (or killed) by the diseases the vaccines are designed to protect against. They're wrong. Their child may still develop ASD and then be sickened or killed by the very diseases the vaccines would have prevented.

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Being of the Boomer generation, how can I possibly neglect mentioning one of the funniest film producers/directors/actors of the mid-to-late 20th century – Mel Brooks.

One of the funniest routines of his I remember is the song Springtime For Hitler from the movie (and now Broadway hit) The Producers.

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Even as our friends on the left side of the aisle have been muddying the waters of the national debate with iterations of the tired Greedy-Republicans-vs-poor-but-honest-workers narrative, those same workers have been eating high off the hog at the expense of the “forgotten man.”

Indeed.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the snows have ceased for the moment, the ski areas are busy, and where the wood pile is getting smaller every day.